


A Scientist In Asgard

by Yalu



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alien Technology, Asgard, Community: love_bingo, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Science, science ladies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-27
Updated: 2013-08-27
Packaged: 2017-12-24 19:52:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/943988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yalu/pseuds/Yalu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jane's in Asgard, and everything runs on magic. But she's a scientist, and there's got to be an explaination. Right? </p><p>Jane/Thor fluff with a big side of Jane/science. Inspired by the second trailer, will no doubt get Jossed by the movie.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Scientist In Asgard

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [love_bingo](http://love-bingo.livejournal.com) Round Three. Prompt: Infatuation.
> 
> Okay so this is a weird one. I wanted to try playing with love for a place of a thing like knowledge and science and learning instead of love between people, and I think it works, but if not the Thor/Jane stuff ought to count for love_bingo anyway :)  
> 

Asgard was _gorgeous_.

Jane couldn't get over it. There were almost no words. Everything gleamed - gold mostly, but so many shades of bronze, copper, near-white, almost-silver, all glimmering in the morning light, cushioned by mossy patches of green that- God, those were _fully grown trees_ she was looking down at. This place was _huge_.

She took a step back and tugged the blanket more tightly around her shoulders. The buildings around her all curved gently, nothing like the stick-straight skyscrapers of Earth. They weren't trying to cram as many offices as possible into one space, they were works of art, breezy and smooth, taking up all the space they needed and decorating the city bit by bit with arches. Canals wound between them, too regular to be taking advantage of natural waterways. There was some sort of pattern, she just couldn't make it out from this angle... or maybe she was too close. She craned her neck to see as far to the left and right as possible: yep, definitely a pattern that continued around the palace. Maybe Thor would take her flying high enough to see properly. Or maybe they had a map. Someone must have designed this, and Jane wasn't an engineer but she knew enough to know that a project like this... the sheer scope was mind-blowing. And how ancient was this city again?

Some things were familiar: the thunder of the waterfalls, crashing down the palace terraces and into canals to bleed into the sea and... off the edge of the world into space. They said. Jane hadn't seen that when she arrived, and no matter how many times Thor explained it she wasn't going to believe it till she saw it. But the sound was nice. Comforting. And the smell of the sea wafted through the air, fresh and cool, and she closed her eyes to breath it in.

What would it be like to live here? Grow up here - take it for granted? The people she'd met so far hadn't seemed to pay any more attention to their city than Jane did to her apartment, and part of her wanted to shake them and shout that this was the most wonderful place in the universe, didn't they _know_? How could they not wake up every morning and be awed by all this?

But some of them, a lot of them, had already been looking down their noses at her. The down part she was used to - snobby scientific community aside, she never did wear heels and these people were _tall_ \- but the thin smiles, polite but sort of pitying... Thor had said no one would care that she was mortal, but from the day they met Jane had known he was the sort of guy to see too much good and too few faults in people.

She loved that about him. And all the people who mattered - Thor's parents and his friends - had been warm and friendly and happy to see her. They teased Thor lightly and welcomed her questions and invited more, and if it weren't for the looming threat of whatever it was that had attacked London, if it weren't for the whispers of an enemy that scared even these immortal soldiers, the whispers about needing _Loki's_ help... if not for all that, it would have been perfect.

It was hard to think about danger right now. The strange white sun was warm on her face and she closed her eyes, breathing in the smell of the flowering tree next to her and listening to the weird sounds that drifted up from the city. There were soft _whoosh_ s as little vehicles floated along on roads right next to horse-drawn carriages and wagons made of sleek metal. Inside there were all sorts of odd bits of technology too - smooth raised buttons that looked like clouded glass set in fixtures depicting ancient battles, or the hand-sized panels set into the walls beside doors and windows that controlled the locks and shutters. She hadn't used them. She had no idea _how_ to use them, and they were so well camouflaged that she might have missed them completely except that she'd seen Odin wave his hand over one at dinner last night and close a number of windows and change the lighting at the same time. It had to be some form of motion detection, that was obvious, but how he gave such a specific command with a nonspecific movement, that she didn't get. A pre-recorded system maybe, but he only shut the ones that were letting the wind in. Maybe he would explain if she asked him at breakfast.

Yeah, that would be good - asking the king of the realm how to open her window. She'd talk to Thor later.

Jane took another deep breath and leaned on the rail, staring out at nothing in particular. She could see the rainbow bridge darting off in a thin streak into the distance. There was a garden on top of a huge causeway between two skyscrapers ahead of her, a mostly-circular building halfway to the water's edge that could be a stadium, and... was that-?

That building was _floating_.

Jane squinted and leaned over the rail as far as she could, completely forgetting about the drop as she twisted to get a better view. Maybe it was the light. Maybe there was... no, there was nothing under it. Under _them_. They were at least a half-dozen silvery buildings, all curved and circling around a midpoint she couldn't see, and they each had to be at least three hundred feet off the ground, and ten storeys tall, maybe twenty. Even if Asgard had _the_ most light-weight building materials in existence, those had to way thousands of tons each, and they were just _hanging_ there? Were they an experiment? Did people live in them? What the hell was the mechanism?

Mag lev. Had to be some kind of mag lev. Right? But something that big, that _high_...

She wrestled a thin notebook out of her pocket and grabbed a pen.

 

When Thor knocked on her door half an hour later, he waited patiently for several minutes before worry beset him. When he knocked again, harder, the door moved in a little and, surprised, he tentatively peeked in. There was no sign of Jane in the main room or the washroom, so he stepped inside and hovered uncomfortably until he heard her voice coming from the balcony.

Jane was leaning on the rail, scribbling notes and drawings in one of her little books and talking to herself - something about variables and density and mass ratios and other brilliant things that Thor did not try to understand. She kept looking up for the briefest of moments, then snapping her head back down to her paper and writing faster. "Jane?" he said to announce himself. She turned around and her eyes lit up. "Good morning. Did you sleep wel-?"

"How does it work?" she asked, pointing out across the city with her pen in one hand and causing a blanket to slide off her shoulders. Thor caught it and laid it on the table. "I mean, those, there - how are they staying up?"

He followed her gaze until he spied Lyfjaberg glinting in the morning sun. For a moment he was puzzled, but thinking back he realised he never had seen such a feat duplicated on Midgard. He shrugged. "Magic, of course."

"Magic. Yeah." Jane shook herself. "How does magic work?"

Thor blinked. "It, uh... magically?"

"But how does it _work_? Even magic has to - has to have rules, have limits. You can't just tell it what to do without knowing the methodology or the mechanisms involved." Her face was bright with excitement. "Is it a pre-programmed system? An AI? Or-" her eyes widened "-is it a _consciousness_?"

He shook his head, hating to disappoint her. "I honestly do not know," he said. "It does what I ask and I know what it will not do, but I have never studied its inner workings. I am not the one to ask."

"Oh," said Jane. "Well, who is?"

Gloom saddened him further. "Loki," he said quietly. "Loki studied it."

Jane's enthusiasm faded away and she reached out to take his hand. "Sorry," she said. "I wasn't thinking. I shouldn't have asked."

Thor shook it off. "No, you should. Your endless questions make you as happy as the answers, Jane, and I would not take that from you. Ask. I will tell you whatever I can."

She smiled again, and to Thor it was more brilliant than the sun that lit her from behind. She looked around - at Lyfjaberg, the bridge, the palace towers above them - and shook her head. "I don't even know where to start. It's so beautiful here. I can't imagine what it must have been like to grow up in a place like this."

Warmth bubbled up in his chest. "I am so glad you like my home, Jane," he told her. "It means a great deal to me." He hesitated, then added, "As do you."

A grin broke across her face and she ducked shyly for a moment, then squeezed his hand. "Thanks. And I love it here," she confessed, looking out across the city again. "I could spend a lifetime learning how all this works, it's just all so... It's amazing." Her face shone with happiness as she turned to him. "Thank you."

He lifted her hand and kissed it. "You are most welcome." Then, a thought occurred to him and he straightened. "Although Loki is the greatest master of magic we have, there are many other mages and scholars in Asgard who have the knowledge you seek. I am sure they would be glad to teach you."

Jane hesitated. "I'm basically a beginner, Thor, compared to them. They won't want to explain from scratch to me."

"Then I will introduce you to Atla, who was my tutor in childhood. She always despaired at my poor understanding then. Perhaps, now that I am a better man, I will also be a better student."

"You'd learn with me?"

Thor nodded. "I see now I was wrong to believe a king need not be concerned with such knowledge - for clearly, as it is held in such high regard by you, surely it must be more valuable than all the stars in the universe."

She blushed. "Flatterer."

"I mean every word," he swore.

Jane smiled and looped one arm through his, and leaned her head on his shoulder. "I know you do."

They stepped inside and Thor twirled his fingers over the frame edge to lower the glass wall back into place. He didn't think much of it until Jane stopped them and leaned over to inspect the smooth wall. "There's a controller here?"

"Yes..." Thor frowned. "You did not know?"

Jane bit her lip. "I, uh, couldn't find any of them. I knew they existed," she added, a little defensively. Thor made sure to turn quickly so she wouldn't see his smile. It was endearing, truly.

"I confess, I wondered why you did not lock your door."

Under her breath, Jane muttered, "There was a lock?"

He couldn't help it - he chuckled, and when Jane reddened with embarrassment he took her hands and led her closer to the panel. "I will show you how it works."

  


**Author's Note:**

> You can see the floating buildings in the [very first shot we get of Asgard in Thor1](http://movies.grande-caps.net/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=109830&fullsize=1).
> 
> I pulled the name _Lyfjaberg_ out of the [wikipedia article on Eir](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eir), who was a healer, and it's supposed to mean "hill of healing". No idea if it is or not but there you go. Atla's from the same - one of Heimdall's nine mothers.


End file.
